Parents, guardians, and trusted adults play an active role in teaching young people about digital literacy. Here are some critical digital literacy skills young people can learn at home and school.
Tech Fundamentals
- Use Wait Until 8th‘s Family Guides to help your family learn and grow together in the digital arena. Print their downloadable guides to facilitate meaningful conversations with your children about the purpose of a phone, phone fundamentals, and texting. Wait Until 8th is adding more guides this school year on important subjects like social media.
Searching Effectively
- From researching a school report to watching the latest music video, kids need to learn how to evaluate the quality, credibility, and validity of media and give proper credit to the source.
Protecting Private Information Online
- With so many ways to share information, kids need to learn internet safety basics. Safety basics include: creating strong passwords, using privacy settings, and respecting their friends’ privacy.
- Discuss what is appropriate to share online.
- Talk with your young person about what to do if someone shares a photo or video with them they did not ask to receive.
Understanding Digital Footprints
- Digital media and interactions like visiting websites and clicking on links create tiny tracks. Young people need to know that whenever they create a profile, post something, or comment on something, they create a record that is viewable by others. Commonsensemedia.org is a great online resource for questions about media and digital literacy.
Social Media Threats
- Young people who make threats to schools on social media are subject to severe and potentially life-altering consequences. Regardless of the original intention of a social media post, whether it was a joke or an expression of frustration, students can face long-term suspension, arrest, and criminal charges. Parents should talk with their children about the seriousness of posting a threat and what to do if they see a threat posted by a friend or peer.
Talk to your child about sexualized content online or in the media
- Talks about sexualized media provide young people with the skills that increase their safety online and help them have a critical lens for the content they might see. What begins early, like helping them understand how to use a device or what messages to take in when watching their favorite shows, is part of building blocks leading to future conversations about sexual content online, like porn.
- Here is an example script for Elementary and Primary aged kids (ages 4-10):
- “It’s normal to be curious about bodies. If you ever come across pictures or videos of people naked or touching each other’s genitals or private parts, this is called pornography or porn. These images are for adults, not kids. If you see things like this, you’re not in trouble. I’d like for you to turn off the device or step away from it and let me or a trusted adult know so we can help talk to you about what you’ve seen.”
- Check out this resource guide from Sex Positive Families to learn more about talking with your child about media literacy.
- Young people need to know that sharing sexualized images and videos of themselves or others is not okay and can result in consequences at home, at school, and even from law enforcement.